Hormazd Narielwalla

Narielwalla uses found materials; bespoke Savile Row tailoring patterns, and their antiquarian and contemporary trade counterparts, to create artworks exploring the body in abstract form. Narielwalla’s work is a meditation on the human condition. His new series of works Lost Gardens, an exploration of the notions of culture and migration, is commissioned and currently exhibited by Southbank Centre. His work was shown at V&A Museum London Shop and he has won the 2014 Saatchi Art Showdown Prize – The Body Electric at Saatchi Gallery.

In September 2016 Narielwalla won the Paupers Press Prize at the International Print Biennial in Newcastle, UK, resulting in a new commission to be shown at the Royal Academy of Arts London in April 2017. Since Narielwalla’s first Solo Show, Study on Anansi, was sponsored and exhibited by Sir Paul Smith in 2009, he has developed a permanent presence and critical acclaim in the academic and commercial art world alike. His work has been commissioned by Crafts Council for the national touring exhibit Block Party (2011) and Collect 13 at the Saatchi Gallery (2013). He exhibits regularly in London, and has shown work in Melbourne, Stockholm and Athens as well as at Scope Art Fair in New York (2010) and the India Art Fair, New Delhi (2014).

Other collaborations and associations include Centre of Possible Studies – Serpentine Gallery; Beams Tokyo; Artbelow; Jigsaw; Tiger of Sweden; Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill and CHART gallery. Narielwalla’s work is held in public and private collections worldwide, including the British Library; the National Art Library, INIVA; Fashion Institute of Technology, New York; and Parsons School of Art & Design, New York. Narielwalla holds a PhD from University of Arts, London, and is the author of a biography of Master Tailor Michael Skinner, The Savile Row Cutter (Benefactum, 2011).

His practice began in the workrooms of the tailoring firm Dege & Skinner in London’s Savile Row, with an artist’s book, Dead Man’s Patterns (2008), which reflects on the bespoke suit patterns of deceased customers. Narielwalla has worked with patterns from many sources, including 1970s luxury lingerie (Lady Gardens), antique magazine inserts (Le Petit Echo de la Mode), uniforms from the British Raj (Love Gardens for Collect 13), and a 1920s tailoring manual (Hungarian Peacocks, 2013).